Was Venus Like The Earth in The Past?

Venus appears to have fallen victim to excessive green house effect a long time ago. That, combined to the fact that it is closer to the sun than us, results in very high temperature.

Do you think at some point in the distant past, Venus could have had liquid water and be quite similar to earth? Could it change so much over the past million of years to go from an Earth-like planet, to a super hot toxic world? Is that possible? Or was it always pretty much the way it is?